The List: 14 Jul 1995 (Issue 257)

Oh, for the unearthly talent that would allow me to utter the words ‘thank you’ and be greeted with an avalanche of applause, to pull a silly face and

get a standing ovation, to bunnyhop

around to show that I’m violently happy and cause mass hysteria in a crowd of otherwise polite, orderly concert-goers. But I’m not Bjiirk, so I

can’t do all this.

The transformation in the audience from pre-gig civilised drinkers to devotional congregation genuflecting before the omnipotent Bjiirk is the first surprise of the evening. The second is that her voice, although still unique, is not the sound of a flotilla of angels casting blossom to the gentle wind to the accompaniment of massed harps. In fact, she sounds quite

human, really.

lnevitably, she can’t replicate the sound of Post live — Glenn Miller wasn’t available to back her on her encore, ‘lt’s Oh So Quiet’, but it was a highlight anyway, still managing to capture the sass and celebration of

\

single, does not fare so well in its pared-down format. A swelling string arrangement is a powerful thing, and

Concerts listed are those

at major venues, for which tickets are on public sale at time of going to press.

See, even a performer like Bjiirk isn’t an island. Okay, there’s the voice, the presence, the pretty frock, but it takes 9 ' more than a series of impressive vocal I (-l. v H) I)“ : acrobatics to create magic. So her ‘ J "1‘" “' minimal version of ‘Venus As A Boy’ is I , sweet but nowhere near as beguiling

5 as when it gets the full arrangement

rhythm remains intact.

it’s not that deviation from her recorded works is a bad thing — heaven forbid she ‘do a Portishead’ and reproduce her album exactly - but in the main her renditions are so stripped back that there’s no thrusting i momentum and the success of the i show rests entirely on the Bjiirk 1 larynx. Although, judging by her i reception, Bjiirk on a plate was all the audience demanded anyway. (Fiona

Shepherd)

Im- ‘

EUGENIUS

llice’n’Sleazy, Glasgow, 8 July.

Although Eugene Kelly has a tendency to turn up in the audience of almost

and his band have been the ones up on ; " tit-ct-ty Brothers. 25 ()ct. Aug, INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL stage being stared at. Not that there's I EDINBURGH ususn 1995 (:25 575(1) 13 anything remotely ‘comeback’ about ; JAZZ HALL (22s 1155) Scottish Aug-«2 Sept. Tickets rot- tonight. It’s more like bumping into a t I GLASGOW CONCERT Fiddle ()rchestra. 28 ()ct. all concerts can be booked

trapped undemaief With the oxygen got his stripey top, and the ensuing

running 10W- i question and answer session ends in Claustrophobic. and ‘Flame On’ isn’t g the punchline ‘What Every’s Jeans’. A really helping to distract the thoughts possjb|e highlight, but, y’know, you of just how unpleasant it feels down " many had to be there, here tonight. This surely is the point of “are to keep coming back to the halting 50‘3" dingy 09"” Venues - heat, but it’s surely a factor in both when the music hits, the excitement the lacklustre audience reaction and fills the place. The sweat dripping 1 the brevity and largely impersonal from the ceiling rafters takes on a performance of the band. They hit , cinematic sheen and you feel dirty- hard once or twice, but you didn’t miss elite, really, glamorously decadent. much more than a damp T-shirt. Man Tonight, it’s just too hot, the toilets ' alive. (Damien Love)